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According to an interview with GamingOnLinux in 2018, Rebohle “always had an interest in graphics programming,” but mostly tinkered with hobby projects that, in Rebohle’s own words, “never really evolved into anything useful.” DXVK started due to some frustrations with the reality of gaming on Linux, but also because Rebohle “really wanted to get one specific game to work.” That game was Nier: Automata.
Rebohle described himself as “a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Nier” on the GamingOnLinux forums in early 2018, days after the initial release of DXVK. It wasn’t just that Rebohle cared about this game, though. In speaking with the developer, it was clear that Nier: Automata presented a unique challenge.
“Nier is the game that got me into learning — and debugging — the D3D11 API in the first place, initially because it did not even work on Windows on my RX 480 due to an AMD driver bug,” Rebohle told me.
“When it eventually started running on Linux using Wine’s OpenGL-based D3D translation, it was kind of slow and not rendering properly, so I did some more serious debugging there and learned quite a lot in the process. Having played around with Vulkan before, the idea for DXVK was born some time during this process,” Rebohle said.
Development started in late 2017, but by January 2018, Rebohle and a group of contributors had already gotten Nier: Automata up and running on Linux. Phoronix shared the news, and shortly after, Rebohle landed a contract with Valve to work full-time on its open-source projects translating Windows APIs to Vulkan. “Didn’t take long after that article was published for someone from Valve to reach out and ask if I wanted to work on this full-time as a contractor,” Rebohle told me.
The developer is still working with Valve today, mainly contributing to the DirectX 12 translation layer known as VKD3D-Proton.
Rebohle started DXVK and remains the lead developer, but it’s important to highlight the other developers who have contributed to the project. The GitHub project currently lists 137 contributors, and it’s fair to say that the project wouldn’t be where it is today without the community effort that went into it. Still, it may have never started if it wasn’t for Nier: Automata.
As fascinating a story as DXVK’s origins is, that’s not to say the Steam Deck could have never come to fruition on its own. Valve’s Griffais tells me that that it had other projects in the works to get DirectX 11 working, and if DXVK didn’t show up, “one of these other DirectX 11 over Vulkan projects would have been prioritized instead.”
Valve clearly already had Proton in the works before DXVK, and likely its plans for the Steam Deck. But would it have worked? Would support be as good as it is today? How much longer would it have taken? What impact would that have had on the Steam Deck as a whole? There’s an alternate reality where DXVK is never part of Proton, sure, but that’s not what happened. DXVK has evolved into a foundational component of Proton, and therefore the Steam Deck, and Nier: Automata played a key role in that.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nier-automata-steam-deck/
Rebohle described himself as “a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Nier” on the GamingOnLinux forums in early 2018, days after the initial release of DXVK. It wasn’t just that Rebohle cared about this game, though. In speaking with the developer, it was clear that Nier: Automata presented a unique challenge.
“Nier is the game that got me into learning — and debugging — the D3D11 API in the first place, initially because it did not even work on Windows on my RX 480 due to an AMD driver bug,” Rebohle told me.
“When it eventually started running on Linux using Wine’s OpenGL-based D3D translation, it was kind of slow and not rendering properly, so I did some more serious debugging there and learned quite a lot in the process. Having played around with Vulkan before, the idea for DXVK was born some time during this process,” Rebohle said.
Development started in late 2017, but by January 2018, Rebohle and a group of contributors had already gotten Nier: Automata up and running on Linux. Phoronix shared the news, and shortly after, Rebohle landed a contract with Valve to work full-time on its open-source projects translating Windows APIs to Vulkan. “Didn’t take long after that article was published for someone from Valve to reach out and ask if I wanted to work on this full-time as a contractor,” Rebohle told me.
The developer is still working with Valve today, mainly contributing to the DirectX 12 translation layer known as VKD3D-Proton.
Rebohle started DXVK and remains the lead developer, but it’s important to highlight the other developers who have contributed to the project. The GitHub project currently lists 137 contributors, and it’s fair to say that the project wouldn’t be where it is today without the community effort that went into it. Still, it may have never started if it wasn’t for Nier: Automata.
As fascinating a story as DXVK’s origins is, that’s not to say the Steam Deck could have never come to fruition on its own. Valve’s Griffais tells me that that it had other projects in the works to get DirectX 11 working, and if DXVK didn’t show up, “one of these other DirectX 11 over Vulkan projects would have been prioritized instead.”
Valve clearly already had Proton in the works before DXVK, and likely its plans for the Steam Deck. But would it have worked? Would support be as good as it is today? How much longer would it have taken? What impact would that have had on the Steam Deck as a whole? There’s an alternate reality where DXVK is never part of Proton, sure, but that’s not what happened. DXVK has evolved into a foundational component of Proton, and therefore the Steam Deck, and Nier: Automata played a key role in that.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/nier-automata-steam-deck/